Deep Purple Vs. Rush - Who Do You Choose For the Rock Hall?
Thursday, October 11, 2012 at 12:01AM So by now you probably know the 2013 nominees for the Rock n' Roll Hall of Fame. In case you don't know, here's the list:
· The Paul Butterfield Blues Band
· Chic
· Deep Purple
· Heart
· Joan Jett and the Blackhearts
· Albert King
· Kraftwerk
· The Marvelettes
· The Meters
· Randy Newman
· N.W.A
· Procol Harum
· Public Enemy
· Rush
· Donna Summer
New this year, the Rock Hall is allowing for a fan vote! This means you will have some say (it isn't clear how much weight the fan vote gets) in picking one of the new inductees. To be eligible for nomination, an individual artist or band must have released its first single or album at least 25 years prior to the year of nomination... this means 1987.
I'm sure that the top vote getters from the BBG! crowd will be either Deep Purple or Rush, hence the post title. I'll let the cat out of the bag... and let you know I believe both bands deserve to get in. After all, five acts from the above list will get inducted. I also think Joan Jett and the Blackhearts deserve a nod, as does Donna Summer and Public Enemy.
Vote for your favorites now. Voting is open until Dec. 3.
Reader Comments (24)
Deep Purple does too.
Procol Harum also is deserving.
Joan Jett should be voted in,but not with the almost faceless Blackhearts. Joan & the rest of the pioneering classic "fab five" lineup of the Runaways should be the band she enters the Hall of Fame with.
I'm all for Heart being voted in, but Howard Leese, Micheal DeRosier, Steve Fossen & Mike Fisher, the ORIGINAL lineup, along w/ Ann & Nancy Wilson should be honored. Without Fisher & Leese, there's been no classics like "Magic Man", Barracuda, Heartless, or any of the other Heart tunes that still get regular radio airplay. Anything beyond "Bebe LeStrange" & you might as well vote for Dianne Warren to be voted in. After all she had a hand in most of the later day top 40 dreck Heart put out there.
Good point, Ace, but remember that Ann and Nancy still wrote several songs on Passionworks, Heart, Bad Animals, and Brigade. After that period, they went back to writing ALL the material on Desire Walks On, Jupiter's Darling, Red Velvet Car and most recently, Fanatic.
No asterisks here - their entire career deserves to be celebrated and recognized.
They're true innovators, pioneers and flat out bad-ass songwriters and performers!!
· Rush - 2nd to Purple on my list. These guys are criminally underrated as musicians. They are fricking maestro's on their respective instruments.Influenced countless musicians (including the fellow typing this)
· Heart- Close 3rd on my list.Hands down the best female voice in Rock.Ever.·
Joan Jett and the Blackhearts- Love Joan.An original "punk chick" I will mirror my boy Ace however,in that she should go in with the Runaways.They opened the door for a whole lot of bands
· Albert King - Listen to ANYTHING the man has done and tell me he doesn't deserve it.
Out of Rush and Deep Purple... I'd say Deep Purple hands down. Deep Purple were the Godfathers of all that came after. No doubt that Rush is talented.. I just don't think they have influenced music even remotely as much as Deep Purple has.
I think of Joan Jett as more of a fringe candidate - one monster hit, but enough minor hits to avoid the one-hit wonder moniker, and of course everyone likes to refer to The Runaways, even if next to no one ever actually listened to them then or listens to them now. She'll likely get in at the expense of either Rush or Deep Purple, both of which would be more deserving.
Anyone who hasn't heard of The Meters - look 'em up. Classic 60's and early 70's proto-funk out of New Orleans that holds up very well.
Sadly so many deserving bands never get the nod. As I mentioned the Hollywood Stars earlier, ever heard KISS's "King Of The Night Time World" or Alice Cooper's "Escape"? Both were originally written by Hollywood Stars guitarist Marc Anthony (R.I.P.) & performed by the Stars...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=auuvBHB5Qmk
Must have been something to see The Runaways in Hollywood back in the day.
Metal Gods and Rock & Roll Icons!!!
RUSH?!
Wha? That is truly laughable!
What a JOKE! Totally UNROCK except for the first album, primarily for the song "Working Man" with a less annoying and less cartoonish vocal delivery of Geddy Lee in evidence (on that record), the great Jimmy Page-esque guitar of Alex Lifeson and the unheralded straight ahead Hard Rock drumming of John Rutsey.
"Fly By Night" welcomed the more progressive overplaying of Neil Peart as well as his silly lyrics based on whatever books he had on his night stand including the conservative doctrine of Ayn Rand, a popular author widely read by Tea Party activists.
However, the title track, perhaps RUSH's Last True Rock and Roll Song is the album's stand out and is, IMHO, their best song. Still, they managed to hold back Peart's overflourishing determination to define the band's final manifestation as Prog Rock.
As good as it is, "2112" marks the definitive end of RUSH as Rock and Roll Band and Peart's pod from "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" hatching and devouring whatever was left of it and leaving a Prog Rock band in it's place.
And Geddy Lee's Woody Woodpecker vocals, which overshadow Lifeson's classic playing, guarantee RUSH will NEVER, and I mean, NEVER allow RUSH to be inducted unless The Hall want to put in a band that will surely show up and play at the ceremony in it's classic line-up. In my view, LIFESON should have quit RUSH after 2012, had his name chromed and just plain ROCK OUT without the hyena shrill of an overrated bassist and overplaying "drummer"/hack lyricist.
Forget anything else Deep Purple ever did, though most of it is excellent -- they should have been inducted on their ultra classic album "Machine Head" alone, right off the bat as Gary says. And as Rock-It makes clear, Deep Purple's ROCK & ROLL absolutely TOWERS over RUSH's Prog Rock Meanderings.
That's it right there -- "Machine Head" vs. The Entire RUSH Discography. I rest my case.
The biggest questions are -- Will Blackmore show up AND can they let Gillan do "Smoke", "Lazy" and "Space Truckin'" and let Coverdale do "Burn" when Deep Purple perform?
My bet is Blackmore will not be able to resist showing up but it is hard to guess as he is SO unpredictable.
p.s. And, yes, Heart should get in but Joan Jett should get in with The Runaways first and I would not put either of them in this year out of mutual respect of both bands. I personally would rather The Runaways go first simply because I LIKE THEM BETTER than Heart. Imagine how KILLER a Runaways Reunion would be? So much more important than Joan Jett & The Blackhearts! That's why they should keep calling it "THE ROCK AND ROLL HALL OF FAME", people! With my recommended inductions, they would get a lot closer to returning respectability to the institution a lot faster!
I saw Joan Jett 3rd Row at the same venue in 1982! As great as she is, no one else can sing "Cherry Bomb" the way Currie does, not even Joan, and it's Cherie I want up on stage, with Joan, performing it with The Runaways during their performance at The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame next year.
This year, give me Blackmore AND Gillan with the rest of the remaining key members including Glenn Hughes in honor of the memory of the great John Lord! THAT, Ladies and Gentlemen, is what I call Rock and Roll!
I saw a few shows at the old Painter's Mill venue back in the day too.
Sadly, Richie Blackmore is completely uninterested in the R&R Hall Of Fame, & has said he won't show.
Cherie Currie would be proud to see the love she is getting here. I'm going to forward her a link to this. She's the real deal, a genuine person & a great artist, not only musically, but as an artist carving sculpture w/ a chainsaw!
And.... fairly soon, she'll have a new CD out. She has a band w/ex- GnR drummer Matt Sorum, that recorded it.
But I would say the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is worse than a joke. Whoever makes the inductee decisions must be on glue (most of the time).